1/350 USS Russell DD-414 (ISW)

This is the ISW Russell kit built as the USS Russell DD 414 at the Battle of Santa Cruz. My thanks to Rick Davis for photos of the ship and to Gordon Bjorklund for very kindly sending me valuable parts from his spare parts collection that wound up on this model.  Thanks also to Rick for the results of research he did at NARA on this and other Sims class DDs.

Russell was the only Sims class DD at Santa Cruz to have a small deck house on the aft superstructure. Fortunately ISW included the deck house in a spare parts shipment a long time ago. I have no idea which of their kits it goes to, presumably one of the ones with no photo on their site. The aft con station behind it is also an unknown spare part. Behind it are a pelorus, compass, and target designator from Paper Lab.  The 20 MM gun galleries on the aft superstructure came from another unknown ISW part that I cut in half and put one on each side.  The unusual pole with lights at the forward end of the upper bridge was another rare feature, I tried to duplicate it with thin rod and spare lights that Gordon sent me. They are larger than scale but the best I could do. A photo of the real lights is included, if anyone knows their purpose or color please contact me. The photo is a crop of a still of the Critical Past footage.  I guessed white for the color.

Per my research there were a few unique features on Russell. Based on my review of the actual photo included with the model photos she had 3 20 MM cannons on each side of the aft superstructure. This is not confirmed by research results on the Calling all Sims fans site but I believe the actual photo shows a 20 MM gun in the forward part of the position at 90 degrees, and a full 20 MM shield and one side of another one behind it. The forward gun at 90 degrees plus 2 more shields=3 guns, my best guess as to what was really there.  Another unique feature I spotted on footage crops of the ship beside  Hornet is what appears to be a 4 leaf clover on the forward part of the stack. A crop and a closeup of my attempt to duplicate it are included with the photos. Based on actual photos I found no evidence of either anti skid mats or smoke generators at this time of the war. I left both off.  Also unusual Russell had most of her life rafts attached outboard of the railings.

For the camo pattern I used the few photos I could find of her in MS 12 mod and crops of  Critical Past footage stills. For unknown reasons I got conflicts in patterns between different photos and crops. End result only the 2 sides back to the stack are fairly accurate. The rest was more or less guess. The stack is also accurate. What is close up in the Norfolk starboard bow photo and Critical Past footage is also accurate. I tried to use frisket paper for the pattern but due to narrow size patterns and multiple curves it would not work. I wound up using tape traced as best I could to the actual patterns.

For the superstructure I used Tamiya XF 19 Sky Grey and my usual Tamiya XF 66 Light Grey for Haze/Ocean Grey.  The Hull is Tamiya XF 66 and Lifecolor  Navy Blue.  It appears that another rare feature of this ship was very little Haze Grey on the ship.
The flags on the signal lines starboard are the  NEVV flag hoist radio call sign per Navsource.  Those on the port side are the initials of Mustin-Hornet Association members AMM3C George H. Maynor and  his good friend AMM2C Robert A.Grimes. Both were picked up by Russell and transferred to Juneau on 10/28/1942. A photo of George is included. I knew him quite well in the late 80s and 90s and last saw him at San Diego in 2003 for the commissioning of the new Mustin. I have since lost touch with him.

The following detail kits were used:

• Alliance single 5” gun turrets with blast bags and hollow gun tubes.
• Anchor chain is Total Navy 1/350.  Very hard to paint out the shine
• Fine Molds IJN Destroyer and Small Ships for the 2KW Signal Lanterns used on the yardarm, and the position lights on the bridge. Also used their 90 cm searchlight since I am saving what few  Paper Lab USN 36” searchlights I have left for a future cruiser.
• Gold Medal Models Buchanan PE set for the signal stations on the bridge, combat lights, and  depth charge cranes.
• G  Factor   Benson class props.
• L’Arsenal   20 MM cannons/tubs and searchlights, MK  37 director,  medium life rafts.
• Paper Lab 26’ whaleboat.

Gallery updated 9/28/2015

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